So it has been almost two months since I have posted in this. In that time, I have seen a lot of things, met a lot of people, and gone a lot of places.
So, now that you have been caught up, yesterday (Friday the 29th) was the Royal Wedding. Firstly, people have been asking why anyone cares about the Royal Wedding. There are several answers to that question, why I almost posted on Facebook but didn't want to engage in a pointless Facebook debate. First, because a marriage in the Royal Family is a really big deal. As one Facebook user astutely pointed out, there have been several Royal weddings since Diana's in 1981 that people haven't cared as much about. Well, the answer to that question is simple, and should be kind-of obvious to anyone who understands how the monarchy works. It is because William is a direct heir to the throne. Which means, after the Queen either dies or abdicates (she has stated multiple times she won't), and Prince Charles either dies or abdicates, William will be the King. The other Royal Weddings since Diana's (apart from Charles' second wedding) have not directly affected the ascent to the throne. Charles' wedding to Camilla was not as much of a big deal for multiple reasons. Basically, it is because everybody was in love with Diana. Her wedding was a huge deal, and nobody was really happy when they divorced. Charles had been in love with Camilla for years, and was still in love with her when he married Diana. In 2005, Charles married Camilla, but nobody liked Charles because he kind-of screwed over Diana, and nobody liked Camilla because she kind-of screwed over Diana as well. So in that case, the marriage was between two people who were not in particularly good standing in the public eye.
However, in this case, both Prince William and Kate Middleton are loved by the public. Kate Middleton has become a style icon, as evinced by the countless silly hats worn on the day of the wedding in London. Also, one of the big reasons the wedding was such a big deal was because Kate Middleton was a commoner. True, Diana was a "commoner" as well, except she had a title before her marriage, and she was also a direct descendent of Charles II. Kate Middleton does not have a drop of royal blood in her body. Her parents were originally working-class people until they opened up this party supplies website which made them incredibly rich. The Middleton's ended up paying for the great majority of the wedding. She has also been a great girlfriend to Prince William in the public eye, never causing any controversy or doing anything to make anyone dislike her. She is adored by the public. Most importantly, Kate Middleton's commoner status has made this quite the fairytale story. Kate Middleton went from being essentially a nobody, to being, quite literally, a princess (quite literally in terms of status, but in terms of title she has actually become a duchess since the marriage, a position that is the same thing as the modern day view of a princess). Kate Middleton will one day be the Queen of England. Everybody always goes on and on about how the monarchy is stupid because the Queen is just a figurehead, which, while true, doesn't give full appreciation to the power of the monarchy. The practice of the Queen actually calling the shots has gone out, the power has not. The Queen has the ability to create whatever laws she wants, declare war whenever and on whomever she wants, without having to refer to anyone. If she wanted to, the Queen could declare war on the United States and order an invasion of the country, and the army would have no choice but to listen to her. However, that doesn't ever happen anymore. But the power is still there. The reigning monarchs are, quite possibly, the most powerful people in the world because they control the country and do not have to report to anyone. The President of the United States does not have nearly as much power as they do. But anyways, that is why everyone cares about the wedding so much. Also, because Kate Middleton is really good looking.
Anyways, for my experience with the wedding. My friends and I arrived at Buckingham Palace on Thursday at about 2:30pm to camp out to guarantee us a spot to see the Bridge and Groom as they rode past. Suited up in my Royal Wedding t-shirt, and carrying a bag with two sweaters, a wool coat, and a hat and some gloves, I headed over to Buckingham Palace prepared to stake out a spot.
When I first got there it was total madness. My friends and I had spread out a bit over our spot to make sure that nobody else attempted to get it, but there was still thousands upon thousands of people walking around attempting to, I guess, see Buckingham Palace the day before the wedding? I'm still pretty unclear as to why there were so many people there at that time who weren't camping out. But we ended up next to this group of people who were camping out as well. One was in a RAF uniform, masquerading as Prince William, along with a girl wearing a wedding dress, masquerading at Kate Middleton. With them were there two friends, one wearing a tutu and one with a guitar. As we sat there, as my Canadian friends had brought the flags of their country, they were approached by countless Canadians. Most of them had flown over just for the wedding and were trying to see if they had as well. I didn't meet any Americans, but then again I did not have any defining things on my body that would call out to the crowd that I was an American. However, our group was also approached by several different news organisations asking to interview people who were camping out. I personally was approached by Italian and some other foreign countries news organisations for an interview. The problem with those things is that these people approach you asking strange questions, which make sense for the news, but are ultimately hard to answer in real life. For instance, "why are you camping out for the wedding?" Answer: to make sure I get a good spot to see the bridge and groom as they go by. However, that answer is a bit too obvious and would make for an awkward answer. Anyways, as we waited, we talked and were hassled by people and listened to the masses sing around us. It was really a great time. The most awesome part of that day was when some members of the Royal Family first drove by. The police suddenly cleared the road totally, and several police officers set themselves on guard. One officer quickly rolled up to the middle of the intersection on a motorcycle, and spent about a minute holding traffic making sure that the situation was clear. Suddenly, about four police officers on motorcycles flew by and several Bentley's rolled by flanked by police officers, containing the Royal Family. The way the motorcycles flew by was so incredibly awesome it is hard to describe.
Eventually, the sun began to set and we had to get food. We left in groups to preserve our spot, and I ended up in the second group. As we walked by the side of Buckingham Palace, it was heavily guarded off as the Royal Family was set to leave at 8pm. We waited around a bit and several very expensive cars, mostly Bentleys, rolled out. They went pretty quickly, but you were able to quickly glimpse into them. I am 99% sure that I saw Prince Charles, Prince Harry, and Kate Middleton roll by. It was very exciting! Except nobody was actually sure who was in them, as I witnessed an argument between somebody arguing about whether it was Prince Charles (old man) or Kate Middleton (young woman) in one of the cars. So who was actually in them is a bit up in the air. Anyways, we then headed to Victoria station and I got some Burger King (lol? Get it?) and ate before heading back to the palace.
The crowd had significantly thinned out by this point, and apart from several hundred people walking around, it was mostly the people camping out who were there. Somebody was handing out this card game, called Top Trump, which apparently they make for lots of different things, but in this case itw as Royal Wedding addition. The game works with each card, representing a person or thing involved with the wedding, having five different point ratings. You split the cards, and take turns drawing a card from your hand and picking a category they are strongest at and challenging the other players card. Essentially it is war with five numbers to pick from. The strongest cards at Kate Middleton, who had a Big Day Rating of 100, and a Fashion Icon rating of 20 (the highest number). She is also more powerful than Prince William in that she is more of a fashion icon, and also older. However, her VIP rating (her status in the world) was not that high, and Prince William is higher in that ranking than her, and the Queen is higher than him, I believe. So we played that countless times and ended up taking it very seriously. The weather called for rain, so a couple hundred people brought tents, which we did not have. We were all prepared to simply tough it out until the morning. As the hours passed, we drank a little bit and talked and joked, and my friend Fred and I got up to wander around the Palace and the surrounding area where the Royal Family and the Middleton's were all staying. Apparently at around 11pm Prince William and Prince Harry (his brother) went outside of Clarence House, where they were staying, to greet the people lining the streets. Clarence House was right near where we were staying, and Fred and I actually wandered by and there was a heavy police presence. However, I'm not sure if that was because they were heading outside or if they were simply guarding the House. If I had been there though, I would have shaken their hands, but I don't think I would have said anything to them. I really wouldn't have anything to say. How many times does the man need to hear "good luck" from strangers? Anyways, as Fred and I wandered, we found a backdoor to a courtyard open (which seemed as if it shouldn't be open), which we were pretty sure would have lead us to Clarence House. We started to venture in, but were ultimately afraid to get too far. We could have potentially gotten shot if we accidently wandered onto the property of Clarence House. So we retreated. We then wandered around for a bit and went through the surrounding parks before heading back to the Palace.
When we got back, our party had been joined by a few more people that Fred knew, who had come while we were away. While not unwanted company, it was a tad annoying, as with these new people, Fred and I had nowhere to lie down, thereby deciding for us that we would not sleep. We hung around for a while, before Fred, two other people, and I went out to rent the Barclay's Bank bicycles scattered around London. We got there, and realised that the only person who had a card capable of renting bikes was Fred, and he could only take out two bicycles. So I walked back to the Palace and found that everyone was sleeping. "Well!" thought I. "This sucks!" So basically I sat there perched on the gate for a while waiting for something to do. Eventually I got really really tired, as it was around 2 in the morning, so I attempted to find a place to lie down. I ended up on the opposite side of the gate, lying on top of the metal feet of it, horribly horribly uncomfortable. I was using my England scarf as a pillow, which left a huge pain in my neck. Eventually, the bad situation got worse, as a street sweeper came by to clean up people's crap. I was on the very edge of the sidewalk, so I knew that the machinery wouldn't hit me, so I stayed where I was. It was basically the scariest thing that has ever happened to me though. As it came closer, the machine's whirring got louder and louder till it sounded as if I was about to be sucked into Hell. It was awful. I didn't budge though and managed to escape the terror unscathed.
The bikers returned, and Fred and I went out to find a place where Fred would be able to charge his cell phone. We found a little shop and bought samosa's to kill time while the phone charged. The shop owner was a total asshole, however, and wouldn't let him charge it. So we spent an awkward 20 minutes eating the samosa's and talking before leaving to find a new shop. We found one down the street and the guy there let him charge the phone. So we stood around for half an hour talking to the young Sri Lankan waiting for the phone to charge. I only had 20p on me, so he gave me a free coffee. The coffee was really awful (perhaps that was because it was my first coffee since returning from Italy) but I drank it anyways, but felt as if it was going to give me a heart attack so I gave up. On our search, we headed down towards Westminster Abbey, where the service was to take place. It was also crowded there, and as it was around 5am people who hadn't camped out were beginning to arrive. We got back and found everyone awake, and it crowded to the point where we almost couldn't get back to our spot. We managed to however, and spent a few cramped hours trying to make the best of the time. Which wasn't hard, as it was an awesome environment. The place was filled with people wearing silly hats. Kate Middleton has made these really big hats that sit on the side of your head very popular, and all the women there were wearing them. Look at pictures of the actual service to see the silliest of all hats. Apart from the Queen. The Queen wore a very traditional hat. http://i.imgur.com/IemyX.jpg
Here is the stupidest of all hats from the wedding, as worn by Princess Beatrice: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP8I_Jo5Q_Fd192JGuNQlcQ8wGYWkMgd7c61hzABiVHjbRHVYfa_0e3uonqwnpQhdF_bckRTHvd5DXWff3KBDcmUGd3E-1f_y5Gt9Uf9oT6pNCeJlt29NXbtK0qPO8aLALAX2bwRQ5fWw/s1600/princess+beatrice+ugly+royal+wedding+hat.jpg (note: I found that image by Google Image Searching Stupid Hat Royal Wedding).
The difference between all of those silly hats and Kate Middleton's silly hats is that Kate Middleton looks really good in a silly hat.
As the sun rose, the police presence increased more and more. Police were lining the roads, and Special Police were walking around with Sub-Machine Guns. There were four snipers on the roof of Buckingham Palace, and several police helicopters circling the location. There were several bomb sniffing dogs out, who were the least frightening dogs I have ever seen, as they spent the majority of the time jumping around, rolling on the ground, and playing with the police officers. Not very intimidating. http://estb.msn.com/i/C1/F6593ACCC272139D2898D599C59434.jpg (Note: picture not taken at the wedding. But that basically sums them up).
Eventually, Prince William and Prince Harry left Clarence House to lots of cheering, but we couldn't see anything. Then, the other Royals began to roll by from Buckingham Palace, and I had a great view of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. The Queen, as you have seen from that hat picture, was wearing a really sweet yellow dress and hat. In her Rolls-Royce, however, she looked pretty sour and gave a really half-assed wave to the cheering thousands. Countless other Royalty from other countries drove by, many sporting flags of countries I did not recognize, that were British Sovereign states. Eventually, a Bentley drove by the other side of the road, and everyone was sure it was Kate Middleton, so people were firing off streamers as the car went by. We did photographic evidence, and confirmed it was Kate Middleton. However, about five minutes later, a Rolls-Royce with clear windows rolled by showing Kate Middleton in her wedding dress in the backseat (the other woman was her sister, Pippa Middleton). Everyone began screaming about the dress she was wearing, as it is tradition that the wedding dress worn by the bride in a Royal Wedding remain a secret until she is revealed on the wedding. Rest assured, it was better than Diana's ridiculous dress, which was about half a mile long. So we waited around with baited breath, listening to the radio as news of the events came in. Eventually, the service began and the audio was broadcasted around Buckingham Palace over loud-speaker. It felt very 1940s-esque, with us only hearing audio of the news as it happened. My first views of the wedding itself were found in the London Evening Standard after we left the Palace which had managed to churn out their wedding edition by that time.
The service went pretty quickly, and the couple had said their vows within, what felt like, 15 minutes. However, then there was about an hour and fifteen minutes of Church service and singing. When they performed Jerusalem, I must admit, it was epic as hell. Eventually, the Royal Family (including the new Duchess of Cambridge!) left Westminster Abbey to go back to Buckingham Palace, where they were to spend the night. Prince William had been officially appointed Duke of Cambridge at 8am that morning, thereby making his official title His Royal Highness Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn, Baron Carrickfergus (he will only go by HRH Prince William, Duke of Cambridge though), and Kate Middleton's new name and title Her Royal Highness Princess William Arthur Philip Louis, Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Strathearn, Baroness Carrickfergus. She will merely go by HRH Catherine, Duchess of Camrbridge. They all rode by us in their carriages, as the road was lined by the Royal Guard and surrounded by countless mounted cavalry. They rode in this ballin'-ass carriage, waving to the crowds as they went by. They arrived at Buckingham Palace at 12:25, scheduled to appear on the balcony on 1:25 for their first kiss as husband and wife.
There is really nothing like this in the United States. A Presidential Inauguration is the closest thing, but there is nothing like the monarchy. When someone becomes President, in person they are refered to as "Mr. President." A member of the monarchy has to be referred to as "Your Highness." It is incredibly interesting and ridiculous that the monarchy still exists, but it is tradition and an inexorable part of their culture.
Around 1, the police told us we would all have to calmly file down the sidewalk to go towards the gates of Buckingham Palace to see the Royal Kiss. As would be expected, it seem most of the public decided to say, "fuck that." So, as the people began to file past, everyone simply jumped over the barricade. The police handled everything incredibly well though. They formed a wall of police officers, and would walk forward about 5-10 meters at a time, allowing more people to come in without everyone bumrushing the gates and trampling the elderly. So I was about 15-20 meters back from the gate, so I had a very good view of the balcony. After waiting for about 15 minutes or whatever, the doors opened, and out came the couple, giving many their first real view of them. The crowd went insane, with everyone waving their little British flags and taking pictures and chanting "kiss her!" Eventually, the two pecked, in what was the most underwhelming first kiss ever. Apparently the Royal Family doesn't kiss in public really, so that explains that. I practically missed it. Then, as both William and Harry are members of the RAF (Royal Air Force), a bunch of different fighter planes flew over the palace. I knew they were coming, but it was really awesome because I was looking at Kate and William and William nudged Kate and gave a little point upwards behind the crowd, and everyone turned around and saw the planes flying towards the Castle. The entire Royal Family came out, including the Queen and Prince Harry, who looked like a total badass, as he spent the majority of the time scowling and wearing an awesome military uniform. The crowd broke into a rousing rendition of God Save the Queen, and it was epic as hell. After them standing there waving for about 10 minutes, they all went inside. The Queen was then spotted peaking through a curtain of another room, in a "get off of my property" manner. We then spent hours attempting to leave the palace grounds as the thousands and thousands of people attempted to leave as well. The entire wedding ordeal was my favourite thing I have done in London so far, and will definitely be my strongest memory, as it ruled that hard.
Now, for why I have been singing Prince Harry's praises so much so far. Because he is a total badass. At age 17, he got caught smoking weed. I'm hoping it was by his grandmother (the Queen), and I'm hoping it was in Buckingham Palace. After graduating, he decided he didn't want to bother going to college, and enlisted directly into the army. He was set to serve on the frontlines in Afghanistan, and was all set to go, before he was told he couldn't due to his status. That would make his regiment a particularly strong target, and he would be putting them all at risk. Plus, he can't really get killed in combat. So, as a showing of solidarity for how pissed off he was, his entire regiment made t-shirts that said "I'm Harry" on them, as in "I'm Spartacus." He then proceeded to spend his time going around drinking heavily and going to strange, exclusive sex fetish shows (as the Evening Standard reported so well, including pictures [I saved that issue]). Once, Harry took a shot of vodka straight to the eyeball. They put it in a turkey baster or something like that and squirted the shot directly into his eye ball so that the alcohol goes straight to his brain. It's better for your liver that way. I don't think that was why he did it though. Anyway, he is a notorious rogue. Today the Royal Family were hosting what they termed the "survivor's breakfast," meaning everyone was going to kill themselves with alcohol last night. It was predicted that most people would be too hung over (or, I guess, dead) to attend the breakfast. Prince Harry ordered a bacon sandwich a few days ago. Fuck yeah.
Anyways, I took a bunch of pictures, but my camera was dying so I didn't get that many. I can't upload them until I get home and get a new computer though, so don't hold your breath waiting for them. Check the BBC or ANY OTHER NEWS ORGANISATION IN THE ENTIRE WORLD if you want to see what it looked like. I spent a good 10 minutes staring at Anderson Cooper so, it was heavily documented. Also, there is this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13200114
Find me there. Here are directions:
In the main view, see the two statutes that are obstructing a lot of people and significantly closer than the crowd? They shot that picture from the main statue in front of Buckingham Palace. There are two statues there, one on the right of the road and one on the left (all of my directions will be from the point of view of the image). See the left statue? Zoom in on it a bit. See the row of police officers guarding the crowd? See the first police officer on the left of the aforementioned statue? Zoom in on him. I am standing about a meter to his right, in what amounts to the second row. I am wearing a white William and Kate t-shirt and a grey cardigan. I am holding up my camera and wearing sunglasses. Find me!
